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As Congress fights itself, Akalis
least bothered about democracy
WSN Network
CHANDIGARH:
‘Kotaan-Kot Dhanwad’ was the blazing heading as a smiling Sukhbir
Singh Badal peered out of huge advertisements, thanking the people
for their ‘hoonja- pheru’ (sweeping) victory. That the credit for
such a sweep also goes significantly to gun-totting, lathi-wielding
and blood-thirsty mobs of Akali activists intent on ensuring
land-slide wins by sliding the land if need be was left
unmentioned.
But Punjab
witnessed the naked dance of strong-armed ‘democracy’ first hand, in
which the ruling Akali Dal captured power in all 20 Zila Parishads
and in a majority of the 141 Block Samitis. Now, Sukhbir Singh Badal,
the president of the Akali Dal, has announced that his party will
have better coordination with the BJP for panchayat elections and
that should ensure lesser bloodshed. In any case, the panchayat
elections are not being fought on party symbols. But larger
questions have been raised in Punjab about the ground level
conditions even as the state races towards the May 26 election to
12,600 panchayats.
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Akalis caught
with hand in cookie jar
 Meanwhile,
the ruling Akali Dal was on to another major mischief, a sort of
official gunda-gardi. A week after the panchayat polls had
already been notified, on April 17, it carved out hundreds of
gram panchayats hurriedly, not as an innocent administrative
measure but to improve the poll prospects of the SAD-BJP
alliance. The carving was done to split the opposition votes to
the advantage of the Akali Dal. However, a leak from the
officialdom blew the lid off the scam, the state election
commission was forced to call a halt and the Punjab and Haryana
High Court also intervened. Now, such newly created panchayats
have been excluded from the poll process and elections have
been postponed even in the parent panchayats. These postponed
elections will now be re-notified and the process completed by
June 21.
Countermanded
in many villages
 The state
election commission has countermanded elections to several
panchayats in Punjab in wake of reports of snatching and
tearing up of nomination papers and several candidates not
being allowed to file their nominations at places. The EC,
while taking note of these incidents, has held police as well
as election officials accountable. Among these are panchayats of
Veer Kalan, Assiwala in Sunam block of Sangrur district,
Mothawala, Billimar and Chak Kathgarh in Guru Harsahai block of
Ferozepur district and in ten villages including Nangal,
Thulewal, Gumti, Manal, Thuliwal, Hamidi, Mangewal, Gurm,
Karamgarh and Thikriwal of Barnala block in Barnala district.
All is well,
declares BJP
Mollified by
visits of Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal to
hospitals where injured BJP activists are undergoing treatment
after the Akali-led violence in Block samiti polls, the BJP eadership
has rejoined the campaign for Amritsar(South) bye-election where
Inderbir Singh Bularia is SAD candidate.
BJP state
president Rajinder Bhandari, Manoranjan Kalia and MP Navjot
Sidhu were with Badal Sr. and Sukhbir for several rallies a
series of rallies in the city and canvassed support. The Tarn Taran
clash between SAD MLA Harmeet Singh Sandhu and BJP MLA Anil
Joshi had prompted the saffron party to withdraw its leaders
and workers from the election campaign. |
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Cong MLAs resign
All Congress
MLAs, with the exception of a couple of them including Captain
Amarinder Singh, submitted their resignations to party’s state
chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, as a mark of protest against hoodlums
of Akali Dal.
Jagmeet Singh
Brar, the firebrand Congress leader who is doomed to fight his own
partymen more often than not, led a long “mourning” procession march
to ostensibly save democracy from Muktsar through Sarainaga,
Bariwala, Kotkapura, Sandhwan, Faridkot, Mudki, Talwandi Bhai, Zira,
Makhu, Harike Pattan, Sarhali and Naushehra, Tarn Taran and
eventually culminating at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar where
Bhattal addressed the gathering.
Incidentally,
the violence was most pronounced in Malwa, especially in Lambi area
represented by CM Parkash Singh Badal. Badal called the resignations
of Congress MLAs a “gimmick” and said the Congress should prove the
sincerity of its actions by forwarding the resignations to the
Assembly Speaker. The Indian media dutifully reported Badal’s
comments without observing whether it beholds a Chief Minister to
ask the entire elected opposition to resign because of widespread
violence. Badal also said the party was back on an even keel with
the BJP.
Cong fights
itself
The Congress
remained a divided house with Bhattal chucking out former Amritsar
(South) MLA Harjinder Singh Thekedar, considered close to Amarinder
Singh, Thekedar had lost out in the race for party ticket this
time. He said Bhattal had “sold” the party’s interests to Badal.
Earlier, Amarinder had made similar allegations. Bhattal is widely
seen as being soft on the ruling regime.
Thekedar said
Bhattal deliberately fielded a “weak” Navdeep Singh Goldy and “took
a bribe of Rs 30 lakh from Goldy”. Amarinder too castigated Bhattal
and said the resignations were a cowardly step and “have shown a
weak face” of the party. “This is not the right step,” he said,
adding, “One cannot fight the opponent by quitting.”
Amarinder has
been at loggerheads with Bhattal over the past few months, even
accusing her of being in league with Badal, and though both have
been pulled up by the Congress high command, the bickering has not
stopped.
21
May,
2008
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